Danshen: a phytochemical and pharmacological overview.

Danshen, the dried root or rhizome of Salvia miltiorrhiza Bge., is a traditional and folk medicine in Asian countries, especially in China and Japan. In this review, we summarized the recent researches of Danshen in traditional uses and preparations, chemical constituents, pharmacological activities and side effects. A total of 201 compounds from Danshen have been reported, including lipophilic diterpenoids, water-soluble phenolic acids, and other constituents, which have showed various pharmacological activities, such as anti-inflammation, anti-oxidation, anti-tumor, anti-atherogenesis, and anti-diabetes. This article intends to provide novel insight information for further development of Danshen, which could be of great value to its improvement of utilization.

Transcriptome Profile Reveals that Pu-Erh Tea Represses the Expression of Vitellogenin Family to Reduce Fat Accumulation in Caenorhabditis elegans.

Due to misbalanced energy surplus and expenditure, obesity has become a common chronic disorder that is highly associated with many metabolic diseases. Pu-erh tea, a traditional Chinese beverage, has been believed to have numerous health benefits, such as anti-obesity. However, the underlying mechanisms of its anti-obesity effect are yet to be understood. Here, we take the advantages of transcriptional profile by RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) to view the global gene expression of Pu-erh tea. The model organism Caenorhabditis elegans was treated with different concentrations of Pu-erh tea water extract (PTE, 0 g/mL, 0.025 g/mL, and 0.05 g/mL). Compared with the control, PTE indeed decreases lipid droplets size and fat accumulation. The high-throughput RNA-Sequence technique detected 18073 and 18105 genes expressed in 0.025 g/mL and 0.05 g/mL PTE treated groups, respectively. Interestingly, the expression of the vitellogenin family (vit-1, vit-2, vit-3, vit-4 and vit-5) was significantly decreased by PTE, which was validated by qPCR analysis. Furthermore, vit-1(ok2616), vit-3(ok2348) and vit-5(ok3239) mutants are insensitive to PTE triggered fat reduction. In conclusion, our transcriptional profile by RNA-Sequence suggests that Pu-erh tea lowers the fat accumulation primarily through repression of the expression of vit(vitellogenin) family, in addition to our previously reported (sterol regulatory element binding protein) SREBP-SCD (stearoyl-CoA desaturase) axis.

[Studies on chemical constituents from seeds of Euryale ferox].

OBJECTIVE: To study the chemical constituents from the seeds of Euryale ferox. METHODS: The chemical constituents were isolated by silica gel column, Sephadex LH-20 and their structures were identified by physico-chemical and spectral analysis. RESULTS: Seven compounds were purified from the 95% ethanol extract. These constituents were elucidated as protocatechuic acid (1), gallic acid (2), gallic acid ethyl ester(3),5 ,7-dihydroxychromone(4), ß-sitosterol(5), daucosterol(6), and 5,7-dihydroxy-6,4'-dimethoxyflavone(7), respectively. CONCLUSION: All compounds are isolated from this plant for the first time.

Cytotoxic steroidal saponins from Ophiopogon japonicus.

Four new steroidal saponins, named ophiopogonin P-S (1-4), together with eleven known ones (5-15) were isolated from the tuberous roots of Ophiopogon japonicus. Their structures were elucidated by spectroscopic and chemical analysis. Compounds 2-15 were evaluated for their cytotoxic activity against five human tumor cell lines (HepG2, HLE, BEL7402, BEL7403 and Hela). Compounds 2, 5, 6, 8 and 9 were cytotoxic for all cell lines tested. Compounds 7, 11 and 15 showed selective cytotoxicity against some of the cell lines. The structure-activity relationship of these compounds was discussed.

Anti-inflammatory homoisoflavonoids from the tuberous roots of Ophiopogon japonicus.

Two new homoisoflavonoids, named ophiopogonone E (1) and ophiopogonanone H (2), together with thirteen known ones (3-15) were isolated from the tuberous roots of Ophiopogon japonicus. Their structures were elucidated by spectroscopic and chemical analyses. Compounds 7 and 15 were isolated from the genus for the first time. In addition, compounds 2-15 were evaluated for their effects on the inhibition of NO production induced by lipopolysaccharide in the murine microglial cell line BV-2. Compounds 2, 4, 6, 7, 10, 11 showed potent inhibitory effects on NO production with IC(50) values of 20.1, 17.0, 7.8, 5.1, 19.2 and 14.4 µM respectively.

Characterization of seventy polymethoxylated flavonoids (PMFs) in the leaves of Murraya paniculata by on-line high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to photodiode array detection and electrospray tandem mass spectrometry.

A sensitive HPLC-DAD-ESI-MS/MS method was established to screen and identify the polymethoxylated flavonoids (PMFs) in the leaves of Murraya paniculata (L.) Jack. 16 PMF standards were first to be analyzed in positive mode by the CID-MS/MS. For polymethoxylated flavones, the fragments of [M+H-n×15](+) produced by loss of one or more methyl radicals from the protonated molecule, as well as [M+H-16](+), [M+H-28](+), [M+H-29](+), [M+H-31](+), [M+H-33](+), [M+H-43](+), [M+H-44](+), [M+H-46](+) and [M+H-61](+) fragment ions were detected, which could be taken as their diagnostic characters. For polymethoxylated flavanones and chalcones, their [M+H](+) ions usually underwent RDA cleavage fragmentation of the C-ring prior to the similar loss of diagnostic fragment ions as polymethoxylated flavones, which could be adopted as a shortcut to distinguish them from ordinary flavones rapidly. For the PMF glycosides, the neutral loss of the similar fragments with polymethoxylated flavones from their [aglycone+H](+) could be adopted as a simple method to screen them out from complex mixture. Based on these characterizations of PMFs and the results of EIC-MS/MS experiment, 70 PMFs including 45 flavones, 17 flavanones or chalcones and 8 PMFs glycosides were screened out from the complex extract of the leaves of M. paniculata. Among them, 16 compounds were unambiguously identified by comparison with reference substances. The results indicated that the developed analysis method could be employed as a rapid, effective technique for structural characterization of PMFs.

Protective effect of a new amide compound from Pu-erh tea on human micro-vascular endothelial cell against cytotoxicity induced by hydrogen peroxide.

A new amide, N-(3,4-dihydroxybenzoyl)-3,4-dihydroxybenzamide (1), was isolated from the Pu-erh tea made with the leaf of Camellia assamica (Mast.) Chang by special fermentation techniques with bacteria and fungus. Its structure was established by means of spectroscopic data analyses, including mass spectrometry and both 1D and 2D NMR spectroscopy. Human micro-vascular endothelial cell (HMEC) injured with H(2)O(2) was used as the model to test protective effect of compound 1 in contrast with other known compounds isolated from Pu-erh tea. These results suggested that compound 1 is a very useful compound to prevent H(2)O(2)-induced cell death of HMEC.